Mahesh Whips Up Mango Souffle - Mahesh Dattani reveals his plans to whip up a Mango Souffle

The background is redolent with yellow, summer and summer’s fruit, heat and sweetness, coming together as the flavour of the season. It’s also the dominant flavour of Mahesh Dattani’s first film in English titled Mango Souffle, set in a farmhouse called The Mango Grove.

But before all the yellow and the lightness lull you into think­ing this could be a light airy romance or a cooling comedy, Mahesh lets us on into some inside info. “It’s got some darker elements in it, very strong dramatic conflict,” he says, “But at the same time, the way the story is told is light and comic.”

Dattani, a playright and theatre-person, has been in the news in the city since two of his plays Dance Like a Man and 30 Days in September were recently staged. Mango Souffle marks his first foray into filmdom. Produced by Sanjeev Shah under the banner of Lotus Piktures, the film takes a break from the well-known star banner. Instead, there’s Atul Kulkarni(Abhyankar of Hey Ram fame), Rinke Khanna, Heeba Shah(Naseeruddin Shah’s daughter) with others, tossed together like the proverbial salad. The theme, ‘a metrosexual love story’ is of course, the well-seasoned dressing. “I looked for actors who looked like the characters in the story,” says the playwright, explaining his cast, “Known names were not in the list at all.”

But what’s with the ‘metrosexual’? “The metros offer more space for sexuality to express itself without necessarily, cultural prescriptions,” says Dattani, of his theme, “This is one of the themes - you have the gay relationship developing, the parallel normative one and then you have the ‘metro’ relationship between the friends, that though is not sexual, is very much a part of being in a metro. All the three tracks integrate on this partic­ular day, a brunch party at the farmhouse.”

Why Bollywood, you ask Mahesh and he laughs. “It’s not really,” he says, “It’s off, off, off, off Bollywood. Well, I have ex­plored with the stage, with radio, these are two mediums I intend to continue working with. Now I am exploring films as a medium and I really don’t see it as a departure from theatre. My inter­est is primarily in drama and this is just another medium for it.”

Mahesh was in the city recently to complete the post production work for the film. Will the souffle rise to a summer release? “Well, that’s too soon,” he confesses and at the same time tells you ruefully that summer would indeed be the ideal time for Mango Souffle! But post-production is expected to stretch through the hot season and he sees a late December or early January release. “We are planning to take it to the festivals,” he adds. Film has been a learning experience says Dattani, “I feel young all over again.”

The roughly 100 minute farmhouse drama is in the new genre, a language that talks of the conflict of the urban Indian. No songs, no loud comedy tracks, no jatkas, no matkas. “I don’t know whether there is any masala in it,” says Mahesh with a chuckle, as you point out that Bollywood is all that and much more, “But there is certainly a strong flavour!”